Rodrigo A. Sepúlveda Schulz

European fairplay

I don’t understand modern sports: players (in this case last night’s football match) play foul, hit each other, stand on each other’s foot (literally), pretend they are hurt when they are not… we see it all live on TV. Non-play. Brutality.

And then one team wins. As if everything was normal, as if foul play was part of the game. And they are celebrated as champions. As examples for the rest. Only the result counts. No serious banning. Machiavelli must laugh.

(check for instance this comment thread here for more visual examples). I had already written similar thoughts here.

In a different space, the same thing happened last week: play foul, and you will get results that everyone else will cheer, not looking back at how you got there. Play by the rules, and be recognised as a laggard. Some people will recognize themselves here.

Which way have you chosen to lead your life ?

France 3:1 Spain

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Streets of Paris last night...

France 0:0 Togo (still)

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A little clip from the bar at Supernova where the French guys were following the most important panel of the conference...

Preparing for the World Cup final with Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasil !

How can't you support this beautiful culture & spirit ?

RSS: Meet Christian Bex, a famous voice on sports on Radio-France

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I had the pleasure of having lunch with Christian last week, and we talked about what it takes to create a “radio voice”. He’s been on the job for more years than he cares to count…

Barcelona World Race press conference

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I had the great honour of joining some living legends for lunch on Friday, during the press conference (about 12 people only) for the launch of the Barcelona World Race.

Mark Turner, from OC Events (and Ellen MacArthur’s business partner) had invited the specialised sailing press to talk about his new event, a 2–crew round the world sailing race, to start on November 11th, 2007.

I know nothing about the sailing world nor their icons, code and language, but was really impressed by the simplicity of these guys, their courage, and their sympathy. Pierre-Yves dragged me there, and it was a delight. The Burgundy was very good too, thanks Abigaëlle!

Pierre-Yves asked me to videoblog 3 interviews of Mark Turner, Roland Jourdain, and Jean-Pierre Dick: you’ll find these shortly on his blog: blogs.lexpress.fr/aularge.

In the meantime, you have to go and watch the 15’ movie presenting the race on the official site. It’s just great !

Blog et Rugby : Rodrigo

Blog et Rugby : Rodrigo, originally uploaded by Altaide.

Someone spotted me in a late dinner this week with Pierre Salviac in Paris. It was snowing lightly outside the whole day, and some Armagnac was more than welcome...

Do you have what it takes ?

Do you have what it takes ?, originally uploaded by rsepulveda.

Are you by any chance watching the Olympics ?

Pierre de Coubertin who invented the modern Games once said (or is supposed to have said), that the important part is not to win, but to participate.

Although I could fall in love with that idea, I totally disagree by now. The only thing that matters is to win.

Jack Welch used the concept as the title of his last book, and he is so right: "winning".

If you are not watching the Games this last week, you should. I very very seldom see so much determination in competing on the GLOBAL scene, individually, just to be the BEST.

Sports teach us a lot about entrepreneurship and business, although we Europeans might not grab the whole importance and relevance : team work in preparation, discipline, concentration, focus, ambition, execution.

My question of the day hence is : as an entrepreneur, do you have what it takes to be the world's #1 in your field ?

Forza Italia !

Tonight we are all Italians ! Luciano Pavarotti sang his personal anthem, Nessun Dorma; the skies were  illuminated by fireworks, Stefania Belmondo lit the Olympic Flame, Carla Bruni handed over the Italian Flag.

Welcome to the XX Winter Olympiads !

Street biking

I am really getting more and more excited with online video. Somehow it seemed way too professional and complicated for me. But... Iw as having brunch with a couple of friends today in the center of Paris. On the way back, we passed by a group of street bikers performing rather amazing acrobatics with their bikes.

Wouldn't it be great to capture that moment live ? I grabbed my small camera (always in my pocket, but one of the latest phones from Nokia for instance would have done the trick as well) and filmed a couple of sequences. Back home, I fired up a very simple video editing software, added some cool rap music from the Podsafe Music Network, added a title, and there you have it: a couple of hours later...

Isn't this going to be hot ? Actually the latest gear from Nokia already offers video editing tools directly on the phone ! And even non-geeks are learning how to use them!